Dating Sarah Cooper: Prologue

Everything came to a head on the night of our school’s Winter Formal, ironically. I guess I should’ve expected it, given that the plot of every teen movie ever seems to build into a climax that falls on the date of some sort of “important” school dance, but I honestly didn’t see it coming. At least not until I was there, standing in front of a crowd of students with Sarah’s hand in mine. I could feel a boulder-sized lump in my throat that wouldn’t disappear no matter how many times I swallowed, and I knew she could feel how clammy my palm was. Mr. Crenshaw, our school principal, stood onstage in front of us, along with several other pairs of students who were up for Winter Formal King and Queen, because apparently that was a thing that our school actually did. Or… I guess it’d be Queen and Queen if me and Sarah turned out to be the winners. Which we probably would, even though Sam and Christine were pretty decent contenders as well. But there were a lot of people who’d voted for us. Most of them thought it’d be funny to give it to two girls, and the scattered giggles in the crowd as everyone waited for Principal Crenshaw to read out the names of the winners only made that more obvious. Still, there were others out there who wanted us to win because it meant something. Because it would prove that things had changed for them. For us. What they didn’t know was that we weren’t really an “us”. At least not in the way they thought we were. We would never be exactly what we’d pretended to be, regardless of what happened after tonight.Sarah squeezed my hand and I didn’t look at her. I was dreading Principal Crenshaw’s winner announcement, because the winners had the option of giving a small speech. And Sarah was, frankly, about to blow our cover. I felt sicker by the second.We didn’t exactly attend the most open-minded high school. There were people who’d liked Sarah and me at the beginning of the school year and hated us now, just a few months later. But, fortunately, there were also people who’d used to feel neutral toward us and now loved us. And amongst those, there were people whose lives we’d changed. Those were the ones she was going to hurt tonight. Nevermind that she wasn’t even doing it in the spirit of being honest. She was doing it because if she didn’t tell, Christine would.I shifted uncomfortably and released her hand, acutely aware of the hundreds of eyes on us as Principal Crenshaw opened the envelope in his hand. He paused for suspense, and I only took pleasure in the brief flash of disappointment visible on his face for a moment before he leaned into a microphone to call out, “Sarah Cooper and Katie Hammontree!” The crowd in front of us erupted into a strange mixture of cheers and wolf-whistles and laughter as a couple of girls from the dance committee came forward to place a crown on each of our heads. They seemed confused at first when it came to which crown should go where, and so I ended up with an oversized King crown that I knew had to look out of place on my head. Even as the applause continued, I leaned in toward Sarah and tried to reassure her, “You’ll do fine. I love you.”She gave me a nod and stepped away from me, accepting the microphone from Principal Crenshaw and taking her place front and center stage. I grit my teeth and took a step back, hardly able to fathom that she was really going to bite the bullet and do this now, with a quarter of our high school’s student body watching her. Everyone was going to hate us. A lot of people were going to get hurt. Jake would probably never speak to us again.But we also probably deserved it after what we’d done.“I want to thank those of you that voted for us because you thought we deserved it,” she began, shooting me a sideways look even as a guy at the front of the crowd whistled at us. My stomach twisted into a knot. “There are a lot of people who wanted us to win this for the right reasons. And I know there are also a lot of people who probably just think this is funny and find it hilarious that that crown is way too big for Katie’s head.” There were some chuckles at that, and the same guy who’d whistled before shouted to us that we were hot together, which led to more laughter. A few months ago, Sarah’d have laughed too, but now she just let out a sigh.“Look, what I’m trying to say here is that there’s something I need to take some time to explain to everyone.” I heard her gulp, and she moved the microphone too close to her mouth. A shrill, piercing noise echoed around the gym, making more than a few people cringe. “Sorry. Um…” She paused again, and then took a deep breath and collected herself. I saw her straighten up and look out at the crowd, her gaze firm. She had her mind set on doing this, and when Sarah was set on achieving something, there was no talking her out of it. “Alright. Here’s the thing: It’s true that I’m here at this dance tonight with someone I love. I care about Katie more than anything or anyone, and she knows that. She knows how I feel about her.” She swallowed hard and looked back at me, but I could barely meet her eyes. What she said was true, but it didn’t make this any easier to watch her do. “But we weren’t completely honest with everyone,” she continued. Her voice – shaky but determined – echoed out across the gym, and her admission brought complete silence to the entire room. No one was laughing anymore. And as I looked out at the crowd, I saw no friendly faces. She forced herself to press on.“I was ignorant and immature and really, really stupid when all of this started just a few months ago, and I wanted attention from someone who it took me way too long to realize I meant nothing to. It was really, really dumb, and it was all completely my idea. I talked Katie into… into acting like we were a couple even though we weren’t.”The silence was deafening. I felt my heart pound so hard in my chest it almost hurt, and if I felt this way about what she was saying, I couldn’t fathom what Sarah was feeling. “We never were a couple,” she continued. “Not in the way we told everyone we were. We didn’t spend our formative years dealing with sexuality crises, and I never really thought about dating Katie until this whole thing started. We faked all of it, and I know there’s nothing I can say that will change how much hearing that hurts some of you. All I can say is that I’m sorry, and ask that you give me the chance now to explain what really happened.”My eyes were on Jake when she paused to let that sink in, and I’ll never forget the look on his face right then. He was devastated and humiliated and betrayed and everything I’d been afraid he’d be. And as Sarah forced herself to keep going – to, evidently, tell the entirety of the senior class our story – I thought about the first day I’d ever spoken to Jake, just three months ago. The day that’d started it all.The beginning.

Chapter One

Our town in Flowery Branch, Georgia looked a lot like it sounded. In the spring, when everything was alive and blooming, it was beautiful. In the fall, it was cold and windy, but there was about a two-week period in September where the leaves were orange, red, and brown, but hadn’t fallen off of the trees yet. It was beautiful then, too, and I remember exactly when I met Jake because I stumbled upon him while I was walking home from school, admiring those leaves on our first day back at Flowery Branch High after Fall Break. I walked home most days, unless I went home with Sarah. She lived close to our school and only had a five-minute drive every day, but I lived even closer, and had a ten-minute walk. It wasn’t often that I ran into anyone on my way home, but that day was different. I hadn’t known Jake. I hadn’t even recognized him from our school hallways or from sharing classes. It was like he was invisible until he was right in front of me, getting the contents of his backpack dumped out onto the sidewalk as he watched from where he’d been pushed to the ground. Standing above him was Brett Larson, this kid that’d been a linebacker for our school football team until he’d recently gotten caught with tobacco. Now he was suspended, and, apparently, he was spending his recreational time picking on other kids.I don’t really know what made me stand up for Jake that day, but I did it. Maybe it was that it was the right thing to do. But there were other times in my life where I’d had the opportunity to do the right thing and then hadn’t. Maybe it was just because I still really hated Brett for the time I’d caught him copying my homework answers in the third grade. Or maybe my instincts had just taken over.I paused on the sidewalk, taking in Jake sprawled out on the ground with a bloody lip while a laughing Brett watched notebooks and pencils and a calculator spill out onto the ground, and then I reacted, clenching my fists at my sides and storming up to Brett. “Hey! Leave him alone!”Brett paused, saw me, and the smile disappeared from his lips. He tossed the backpack aside, into Jake’s lap, and then rolled his eyes at me. “How about you mind your own business, Katie?”“I take this way home every day,” I bit out. “So if you’re doing your bullying on this sidewalk, it’s my business. Of course, you could keep going, if you want… but I’m sure Coach Collins would hate hearing about it. How long is your suspension again?” I pretended to tap my chin thoughtfully. “I wonder how long a second one would last?”“Whatever.” He shook his head at me, but I could tell he was backing off, and that was what mattered. “I should’ve known you were a queer, too.”“Charming,” I countered, raising a middle finger in his direction as he turned and stalked away. My focus went to Jake, next, who shot me an appreciative look as I offered him a hand.“Thanks. He’s been hounding me for a while now.” He got to his feet with my help and then bent down to start to gather his things. I tried to kneel to help, but he waved me away. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it.”“Okay.” I watched him, concerned, as he stuffed several notebooks back into his backpack, and tried not to stare too much at his lip. Jake was skinny, almost overly so, and had glasses that were a little too big for him, but he was kind of a good-looking guy. His hair was carefully styled and he had this almost overly rosy-cheeked look that made him appear to be a little younger than he was. Initially, I mistook him for a freshman or a sophomore. “So why won’t he leave you alone?” I asked, although Brett’s parting comment had given it away. Jake gave a bitter laugh as he zipped his backpack up. “Ah, you know, the gay thing. They say it gets better, though.”“People still tease other people for being gay?” I asked, arching an eyebrow. “That seems a little archaic. I thought it only happened in, like, rural Mississippi.”“Rural Mississippi and small-town Georgia, apparently,” he replied with a tilt of his head. “Anyway, I should get going. I’ve got kind of a long walk today. Thanks again, seriously. No one’s ever really stood up for me before.”He started to turn and walk away, but I fell into step beside him, not ready to finish our conversation. “Wait. You don’t normally walk?” I was confident he didn’t. I’d have noticed him.“Uh, no. I kind of wrecked my car over Fall Break and it’s at the shop until tomorrow. I’m not a big fan of the bus and my parents don’t get off work until five, so today I have to walk home. It should only be an hour or so; I’ll get back around four.”“Shouldn’t you get your lip fixed up as soon as possible?” I asked him. It really did look bad. Not stitches bad, but it was definitely swollen. “I live right down this street.” He started to reply, but my phone beeped in my purse and I reacted quickly. It was a text from Sarah, and it said: “Home yet? I’m coming over!”I shot back a response and looked to Jake again, newly inspired. “My friend Sarah’s coming over; she can fix you up,” I insisted. “She’s going to college for nursing next year, so she loves playing doctor any chance she gets.” I paused and then colored when my wording sank in, noting that Jake was struggling to hold back a smile.“I know Sarah,” he told me. “Sarah Cooper. And that is a strangely accurate description of her.”“Playing nurse, I meant,” I corrected hastily. “Treating injuries and that kind of stuff. She considers it practice.”He grinned, and let me off the hook. “I think I had Chem class with her last year.”“You’re a senior?” I asked him, unable to hide my surprise. He laughed. “Yeah. So are you, Katie.”I flushed hard again, embarrassed that he knew my name but I didn’t know his. “Yeah. So… are you up for coming over, um…?”“Jake,” he told me, but he didn’t seem offended. “I know you don’t know me; it’s cool. I don’t talk to many people.”“Why not?” I asked. He seemed friendly enough.“Well, I guess it’s a little harder to make friends when you’re gay in a town like this. You’re always worried about each new person you have to tell, and you never know whether someone will hate you or take it in stride. It’s like playing friendship Russian Roulette.”“It can’t be that terrible here,” I said. “I know a few gay kids at our school.”“Do you?” He arched an eyebrow.“Yeah. There’s, um…” I wracked my brain for a name. “Oh! That guy, Hunter-”“He transferred,” Jake cut me off. “Really?”“Yeah. Last year.”“Well… there’s this girl in one of my classes that I’m pretty sure is gay. She doesn’t talk much but-”“She fits all the stereotypes?” he finished for me. I felt embarrassed again.“I guess.”“You have to admit,” he said, “that there are pretty much no notable gay students at our school. At all.”“Notable?” I echoed. It seemed like a strange word to use.“You know… popular. A well-liked, friendly, totally normal guy or girl who’s attracted to the same sex.”“Well, that could change,” I suggested, even though I doubted it would. Jake was right. The few gay kids I could think of were a fringe group that only really spoke to each other. And I didn’t really talk to any of them. Sarah and I’d always been what she jokingly called “tier 2 populars” – never quite spending time with most of the jocks and cheerleaders, but we had a few mutual friends with those groups, and we were relatively well-known by our classmates. It was, in hindsight, unsurprising that Jake knew both of us but I didn’t know him.“Doubt it,” he replied with a shake of his head. “But I’m glad we at least have some cool people around who’ll stick up for us.” He looked over at me, curious. “Why did you help me, exactly?”I shrugged my shoulders. “It just seemed… like something I needed to do. Besides, I know what it’s like to feel like an outsider.” “Really,” he said. It sounded more like a thoughtful statement than a question, but I nodded anyway. It was true. Throughout my elementary and early middle school years, I’d been a little heavy in the weight department. For a while, Sarah was the only friend I’d had. But one eating disorder and a lot of therapy later, and I was now around average weight for my height, according to my doctor. The end didn’t justify the means, but it did stop me from getting teased, and I was eating healthy now.“Yeah,” I told him. “You know, sometimes people are just stupid. You can’t help that. You just have to be confident in yourself. That’s what I do, anyway.” We reached my house and I pointed, slowing to a stop. “This is me. Do you wanna come in?”He looked back at me in a way I was wasn’t used to being looked at. Like I was a problem he couldn’t quite solve. Then he smirked. “Yeah, sure. Your friend’ll be here soon, you said?”“Yeah. My parents aren’t home, so you don’t have to worry about them hassling you about your lip or anything.”“Cool.”He followed me inside and together we took off our shoes and backpacks, leaving them by the front door while I showed him around. My house was comfortably sized, with three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. I was an only child; we used the spare bed for guests. I showed Jake the half-bath so that he could wash away the blood, then took out my phone to text Sarah again. “Got you a patient,” I told her, and it took her less than ten seconds to respond.“Omg who???”I didn’t bother to tell her, because less than a minute later, she burst inside my house without knocking and threw her arms around me with a squeal. “Oh my God, I missed you!” I laughed as I hugged her back, and we shared a grin once she’d pulled away. “You got a tan!” I noticed. She’d spent Fall Break on a cruise with her parents. Her father was a musician who performed on cruise liners for a living, so she pretty consistently got complimentary tickets. I’d been on a couple of trips with her family. Sarah was an only child, too. She had the blue eyes of her mother and the dark hair of her father, and I’d always thought she was beautiful. Our parents liked to say that we complimented each other, given that I had a rare combination of brown eyes and blonde hair. “I fried first,” she told me with a shake of her head. “It was terrible. But it looks good now, right?”“Gaw-geous!” I drawled, and that made her laugh as she wrapped her arms around me again. We hugged, tightly, and she sighed out, “Jeez, I missed you. I wish we’d had a fourth ticket.”“It was boring here,” I agreed, resting my chin on her shoulder. “Nothing to report.”“I have something,” she told me abruptly, pulling away with a satisfied smirk. I heard a throat clear nearby and suddenly remembered Jake, who was now standing in the bathroom doorway, watching us both with two raised eyebrows.“Am I interrupting something?”Sarah jumped a little, then swiveled to face him. “Oh my God, you scared me!” She paused, then immediately moved to him. “Whoa, is your lip okay?”“Brett Larson was messing with him. I saw them on my way home,” I told her. “Ugh,” Sarah scoffed. “I hate that asshole.” She spoke to Jake even as she ducked into the bathroom to get the first aid kit in the cabinet. “Did you know that when we were in third grade, he used to copy Katie’s homework, like, every day?”“Every day,” I repeated matter-of-factly, watching Jake with some amusement as Sarah doted on him. He seemed a little overwhelmed by how high-energy she was. I was used to it by now.“So what’d you do? Step into his line of sight?” Sarah joked. “What’s your name, anyway?”“Jake,” I answered for him, given that Sarah was tending to his lip at the moment. “You guys had Chem together.”“Really?” Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Oh. Well, I probably just don’t remember you because it took every single ounce of concentration I had just to pass that class. I’m terrible at science. Got a B-minus though because I study hard, unlike this one.” She pointed over her shoulder at me with a thumb and shot me a smile, and then stepped back a moment later to admire her handiwork. “There. All cleaned up.”“Thanks.” Jake tapped at his lip, wincing a little, and then looked between us for a moment. “So… you guys are pretty close, then? I mean, I’ve heard your names mentioned together a lot, so I figured you were friends, but…”“We’re the best of friends,” Sarah cut in matter of factly, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me to her. “I almost died without her this break, you have no idea.”“Huh.” He looked back and forth between us for another moment. “That’s cool, I guess. I don’t think I’ve ever had a friend like that before.”“Well, we’ve grown up together,” I explained. “Like sisters.”“Closer than sisters,” Sarah corrected proudly. “Sometimes we even finish each other’s sentences.”“Yeah?” He raised an eyebrow again, and then looked over his shoulder abruptly. “So Katie, do you think I could grab a glass of water?”“Oh, yeah, sure. The cups are in the cabinet above the dishwasher.”“Thanks.”He left the room for a moment, heading into the kitchen, and Sarah immediately turned to face me. She spoke under her breath even as she shot me a warning look. “He seems nice. But you’re not into him, are you?”I let out a quick chuckle. “No. He’s gay, anyway.”“Are you serious? I mean, I knew we had them at school, but I’ve never actually gotten to know one.”“Well, maybe we should,” I suggested. “Like you said: He seems nice.”“I bet he’d go shopping with us,” she replied, sounding enthused at the idea. I let out another laugh.“Yeah. Maybe.”Jake came back a few seconds later, a glass of water in his hand, and for a moment, we all stood together in awkward silence. Finally, he cleared his throat.“So… I don’t know if I’m being too presumptuous… but there’s this club I kind of belong to, and I thought, I guess… if you guys ever wanted more people to hang out with and talk to and stuff… or if you just wanted to hang out with me and talk, you could come. You know, if you felt like spending time with people who can relate to you. Everyone’s really nice.”“Sure,” I offered, just being polite, but Sarah looked at me as though Jake had just offered to pay for everything she wanted during her next trip to the mall.“Wasn’t I just saying before break that I need way more extracurriculars this year if I want to get into med school? We should do it!”“Really?” Jake sounded surprised that she’d accepted his offer so quickly. “You think you can handle it?”“I mean, we probably just do volunteer work and all that, right? How hard can it be?”“Well-” Jake started to say, but he was interrupted by the sound of our garage door opening. “Shit, is that your parents?”“Probably my mom,” I admitted. “She won’t mind that you’re here, though.”“Well, I don’t want to risk your parents trying to make me call mine or something when they see my lip. I’m gonna see if the swelling goes down before dinnertime tonight and hopefully work some magic with makeup. My older sister can help me.” He moved to the front door and grabbed his backpack. “Thanks a lot, though. Both of you. If you’re still interested tomorrow, meet me after school by the front office, okay?”“We’ll be there,” Sarah agreed, and then he was gone. The front door slammed shut behind him, and she grinned at me the second we were alone. “Awesome. Now I just have to ace most of my classes this year.”“Shouldn’t we have found out exactly what kind of club he’s in first?” I asked. “I mean, how bad can it be?” she retorted, crossing to the living room couch and taking a seat. “It’s probably some science club or something, in which case we don’t have to do anything because we’ll just let everyone else do the work.”“What if it’s like a gay thing?” I pointed out.“We have a gay club?” Sarah’s eyebrows furrowed uncertainly.“I don’t know. Do we?”“I don’t think so. If we do, I haven’t heard about it.”“Well, what if we do, and it is? We’re not gay.”“So?” She laughed. “You don’t have to be gay to join a gay club.”“But people will think we’re gay,” I pointed out.Sarah paused, looking uncertain again. “…You think so?”“Of course, if we’re in a club for gay people.”“We could be, like, allies or something. Besides, even if anyone did think we were gay, it’s not like it’d be that bad, right? It’s not exactly the end of the world.” “Not that bad,” I deadpanned, taking a seat next to her. “Did you not just clean up a busted lip?”“He’s a guy,” Sarah sighed out, as though I was missing something obvious. “It’s not hard for girls like it is for guys, because straight guys think it’s hot.” She waved the topic away before I could respond, and abruptly changed the subject. “Anyway, speaking of guys, here’s my news. Sam texted me a couple of days ago. I think we might be close to officially ‘talking’ status soon.”I had to keep from groaning as she waited for my reaction. The thing about Sarah was that when she wanted something, she really wanted it, and although most things she wanted she seemed to not want for very long, there were two that were the exception to the rule. The first was to get into med school, which was the primary reason why despite seeming shallow to the majority of the student body, Sarah was actually a pretty hard worker, and why the most scared I’d ever seen her was last year when she’d been sure she was going to flunk her Chem class. The second thing was Sam Heath. He was a football player at our school that Sarah’d been obsessed with since freshman year. Of course, she tended to jump from crush to crush pretty frequently, but for some reason Sam had stuck. Regardless of whom she was chasing during any given month, it was always understood that she’d be willing to drop any other guy the instant Sam gave her the time of day. I’d never understood it; he wasn’t even that cute, and yet she’d tried to get his attention for the past four years. And failed. Well, up until now, anyway.“Let me guess: He wanted to know if your English class had homework over the break?” I asked.“Oh my God, shut up,” she whined, punching my shoulder lightly. “You’re supposed to be happy for me! This is a serious breakthrough.”“Don’t you think that if he liked you he’d have already tried dating you by now?” I pointed out. “Not when he’s got a dozen other girls waiting around for him to notice them, too,” countered Sarah. “And now he’s finally gotten around to you. Sounds like true love.”She scoffed. “You’re so cynical. Are you gonna be like this forever now just because it didn’t work out with you and Austin?”“All I’m saying is that maybe you should look for someone who thinks you’re special without all of the extra effort from you.”“No guy thinks like that,” Sarah dismissed. “I’m one dramatic gesture away from a date with Sam; I can feel it. I just need something to help me stand out.”I sighed quietly. She was hopeless sometimes. “Suit yourself. But I’m not funding the chocolate binge when it doesn’t work out.”“Fair enough.” She bit her lip and smiled, excitement radiating from her in waves. “I can feel it. This year is gonna be special.”“Oh, is it now?” came my mom’s voice from the hallway that led to the garage. We both turned to watch her enter the living room and set her purse down on the coffee table. “And why is that?” she asked. I could tell she was just teasing, but I answered anyway.“Sarah’s determined to hatch a plan to snag the guy she’s been pining over for the past four years.”“The quarterback one?” Mom replied with surprise.“He’s a running back,” Sarah corrected. “And he took the time to get my number from someone.”“Ooh, exciting. And what did he want to talk about?” My mother turned away from us to hang up her coat, but I glanced at Sarah in time to see her cheeks pink.“I knew it!” I laughed out even as she went redder.“Okay, we had this stupid journal thing for English. But it’s progress!”“You are so sad,” I told her with a shake of my head. Mom looked amused by the both of us.“Well, dating doesn’t get any easier, girls. It’s better you learn the ins and outs of it early on.”“Tell that to Katie,” said Sarah. “How long has it been since you and Austin?”“Just a couple months,” I said, eager to change the subject. “That’s not that bad. And anyway, you’ve never even dated Sam and four years later you’re still not over him. You’re way worse.”“I don’t give up on the things I want. There’s nothing wrong with that.”“There is when he probably doesn’t even know your last name and you know what his favorite song is.”“Hush.” She clapped a hand to my mouth, then cringed and yanked it away when I licked her palm. “Ew! Gross.”“You were asking for it.”“Sarah, are you staying for dinner?” Mom interrupted. She’d gone into the kitchen at some point, and now she peered out at us from the doorway.“Oh, no, that’s okay. I should get back soon. I just needed to recharge my Katie bar.”Mom nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen, and Sarah stood and went to go put her shoes back on. I followed behind her with an exaggerated sigh.“So are you gonna ask Sam to catch you up on what you missed in class today?” I asked her. She’d only gotten home from her vacation around noon today, which meant she hadn’t gone to school. We had six classes total, and I shared just a couple of them and then lunch with her. I wasn’t, however, in her English class with Sam.“Maybe I should. We’ll see.” Once she had her shoes on, she straightened up and faced me, arms outstretched toward me. “Hug for the road?”I squeezed her tight and mumbled, “I missed you.”“Me too,” she whispered back, and then she was waving goodbye to my mother and me and heading out through our front door.After she left, I helped my mom cook dinner. That was kind of our thing. I loved cooking, and every day, my mom would go to work, I’d go to school, and then right after we both got home she’d start dinner and I’d help. Then my dad would arrive and we’d eat together as a family. And I liked that about my family. I liked being close with my parents, and I liked that I could tell them anything, particularly my mom. Aside from Sarah, she was my best friend.Sarah’s family was different. She lived in a house much bigger than mine, and frankly they were kind of loaded. It wasn’t even because of her parents; her grandfather died around the time she was born and he was apparently very talented when it came to the stock market, so he left a lot of money behind. Sarah lived in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Flowery Branch, but she also rarely saw her dad because of his job, and from what I’d seen growing up with her, her mom was a little disconnected, to say the least. She cared more about the next country club event than how her daughter’d done on her English test, and that was kind of sad to watch sometimes, especially given that I had two parents that cared so much about me. So I got a lot of parental quality time and bonding, and Sarah got free cruises and an empty house to throw parties in. I liked to think that my parents picked up a little of the slack, though. Sarah was over at my house so much anyway that we were like a second family to her.My mom had a lot to say about the conversation we’d had in the living room as we cooked together. “You know, I remember being just as boy crazy at that age. I even had my own Sam.”“I’m guessing he wasn’t Dad?” I asked, grinning. My dad was kind of a dork.“Not even close.” Mom laughed. “He was this big, hulky guy on the wrestling team. I think the line he used to use… oh, God…” She started laughing again as she recalled, “When I finally tried having an actual conversation with the guy, he told me how many times he thought he could bench press me, and I think my crush died in that moment.”“Ew!” I wrinkled my nose and shook my head even as I stirred noodles into a boiling pot of water.“Right? Anyway, what I’m getting at is that those things rarely go the way we want them to. Mostly because you don’t actually know the person, so you put this ideal version of them on a pedestal, and that’s actually what you’re falling for instead. And once you finally do get to know them, you like them even less than you’d have liked them if it had just never occurred to you to date them, because then they’re just a disappointment when they’re not exactly what you thought they’d be.”“Mom, preaching to the choir.” I told her. “But you know how she gets. Once Sarah’s set on something, she won’t rest until she gets the outcome she wants.”“Well, I wish her the best of luck, but I have a feeling she’s going to be greatly disappointed.” Mom finished grabbing a second pot from the cabinet and opened a can of spaghetti sauce. “Anyway, is there something I don’t know about what happened between you and Austin?”I furrowed my eyebrows, wondering what on Earth had made her think that. “No, why?”“Well, Sarah just mentioned it, and I know how things go. You tell your parents what you feel comfortable telling them and your friends get to hear the rest.”“No, she was just… being her,” I deflected. “He and I are fine. Just not talking.”“Well, I’m still sorry to hear that. He was a really nice guy. I think he would’ve made a good friend.”“Yeah, me too. I don’t think I get to decide if we stay friends or not, though. Not since I broke up with him.”“That’s true.” Mom brought the sauce to a simmer, and a while later, I helped set the table while she scooped out three plates of spaghetti and covered them with sauce. Dad walked in through the garage door just as dinner was ready, tossing his coat over the couch and calling out, “Where are my girls?”I rolled my eyes as Mom went to him and kissed him, and then I waited for him to hug me hello, like he always did. We sat down together moments later, and as we ate, Dad asked, “So how was your first day back? No Sarah today, right?”“She wasn’t at school, but she came over after and then left an hour or so ago,” I explained. “Ah. Of course.” He chuckled as he rolled a pile of noodles onto his fork, and then asked, “So did anything interesting happen today?”For a moment, I debated whether or not to tell them about Jake, but decided eventually to go ahead and say something. We’d talked about homosexuality before, and I think my parents were a huge part of why I’d never understood why gay people were bullied. My uncle was gay, and although he lived across the country and I’d only met him a few times, his existence meant that in my family, being gay was normal.“Yeah, actually.” I took another bite of my food as they waited for me to continue. “Um, there was this kid getting picked on on my way home. I saw him with this other guy from the football team; his lip was busted and everything. He said it was because he was gay.”“You’re kidding,” Mom cut in. “Is he okay?”“Yeah.” I nodded. “I actually let him come here and Sarah cleaned him up. But he pretty much left right when you got here. He was worried you’d try and get in contact with his parents.”“Well, we should certainly contact the school.” Mom looked across the table to Dad. “Don’t you think, Jeff?”Dad’s eyebrows furrowed as he chewed his food. Once he’d swallowed, he sighed. “I don’t know. Maybe he wants to handle it himself.”“How can you say that, with your brother being the way he is?” Mom asked him. “Would you have let Kevin take that from another boy back when you two were kids?”“Well, he did,” Dad pointed out. “And much worse than it is today. His solution was to take up boxing.” He grinned. “They left him alone after that.”“Well, not every gay child can just take up a violent sport to avoid getting bullied every day,” Mom countered, clearly upset.“I know. I’m just saying that if this kid avoided meeting you because he was worried you’d get his parents involved, he clearly wants to handle it himself. Besides, he obviously has someone he can count on now in our daughter.” He smiled over at me, and Mom looked to me abruptly, almost like she’d forgotten I was even here.“Oh, of course. Well, I’m just glad to be proven we raised you correctly,” she said. “Good for you and Sarah.”“He invited us to join a club he’s in,” I told them. “He seems nice.”“Well, you could always use more friends,” Dad said, and received a glare from Mom at that.“What’s that supposed to mean? The friends she has are just fine.”“I just mean it’d be nice to see some more friendly faces around!” Dad insisted. “Of course we love Sarah, but it was nice meeting Austin, too. I’d be happy to finally get to say hello to all of these kids you’re hanging out with on a daily basis.”“It’s not like that,” I explained. “There’s a different between friendship and having acquaintances. I have a lot of acquaintances. You know, the people that invite you to parties because you kind of have mutual friends but that you’ll only actually talk to once a week or so?”“All I got out of that is that you’re going to parties,” Dad replied. “What kind of parties?”“Really crazy keggers,” I told him, straight-faced. “I drank an entire bottle of vodka all by myself at the last one.”“Five out of ten for that one,” he rated. “You’d have died if it were true.”“Aw, shucks,” I sighed out. Mom watched the two of us, a smile on her lips.“So how do you feel about joining this club?” she eventually asked. “It’s a commitment.”“I mean, I guess it’d be fine if it doesn’t have a meeting, like, every day or something,” I decided. Then I shrugged. “I guess I’ll hear more about it tomorrow.”